The very first article of the American Journal of International Law, page 1, volume 1 issue 1 is titled “The Need of Popular Understanding of International Law.” Written by Elihu Root and published in 1907, the article lays out the case for why basic understanding of International Law is necessary for world in which democracy is becoming the norm and in which international peace-through-law is the goal. Elihu Root won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1912. One hundred and five years later (in 2017),...

Opened for signature in 2017, the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) recently reached an historic milestone when Honduras became the 50th country to ratify the Multilateral Treaty that prohibits its signatures from developing, using and threatening to use nuclear weapons. In effect, the Treaty “bans” its signatory states from possessing nuclear weapons. But what about those states which possess massive nuclear arsenals that have not signed on, including Russia and the U.S.?...

This show continues our series connecting the Duty to Remember and the Ethics of Memory to the issue of Prisoners of War/Missing in Action (POW/MIA). We begin this show with a photo of Wilmer Newlin “Newk” Grubb, an American Pilot who was shot down in North Vietnam in 1966 and died shortly after becoming a POW. Clearly alive in the photo (taken in 1966), and being tended to by a nurse, the photo was promoted by the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV), and published in U.S. papers. ...

This show continues our series devoted connecting the Duty to Remember and the Ethics of Memory to the issue of Prisoners of War/Missing in Action (POW/MIA). Joining us is the talented team behind "Fruits of Peace" a 2019 documentary film that focuses on the reconciliatory journey of Du Pham, a Vietnamese National, who fought for the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) during the Vietnam War. Du belongs to the celebrated anti-aircraft unit "C4" which, as its first victory, shot...

In his book “The Ethics of Memory”(Harvard 2004) philosopher Avishai Margalit argues that although we have a duty to remember others, the nature of those duties shifts depending on our specific relationship to “the other”. We have a duty to remember friends and family, but that duty is weaker and even non-existent if the other is a stranger. In today’s show, we use the issue of Prisoners of War/Missing in Action (POW/MIA) to reflect on Margalit’s theory and other moral questions connected to...

This show continues our discussion on 9/03, which explored the connections amongst peace, justice and the Golden Rule. We continue discussing the relationship amongst these concepts, focusing today on the connection between impartiality and justice - a connection which Andrew Carnegie observed in 1907. According to Carnegie, justice “forbids men to be judges when they are parties to the issue”. Yet, Immanuel Kant seems to posit existence of an inescapable “inner judge” which can, impartially,...

This show continues our discussion on 8/27, which focused on the role of visual objects in the Peace through Law movement. Discussing both the peace flag (created in 1897) and the Peace Palace, which opened in 1913, we noted how both play important roles in the "education piece" of the Peace through Law movement. These symbols not only provide a way of "entering the forest" of the history of this movement, but also help the individual to organize his or her "inner world" so that one acts in...

This show marks two distinct but linked moments in peace history connected to the work of visualizing and concretizing the peace ideal that was(is) an important part of the “Peace through Law” Movement. August 27 marks the adoption of the International Flag of Peace by the Universal Peace Union (in 1897); it also marks the eve of the opening of the Peace Palace in The Hague (on August 28, 1913). In this show, we discuss the deeper roots of these moments that are part of the “visual history”...

This show continues our discussion of 8/6/2020, which marked the 75th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. We pick up the thread of conversation about “organizing the world” for peace in the nuclear age through international institutions such as the International Court of Justice and the recent case brought by the Marshall Islands which sought to enforce provisions of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. We discuss the philosophical ideas and practices behind other proposed paths to...

The dropping of atomic bombs by the U.S. on Japan in 1945 caused Albert Einstein to exhort human beings to develop “a new manner of thinking” and with philosopher Bertrand Russell, Einstein and other scientists urged us to think in a new way” and “remember humanity, forget the rest.” In like manner, Shinzo Hamai, the first publicly elected mayor of Hiroshima following the bombing called for a “revolution of thought” in his Mayorial Peace Declaration of 1947. In today’s show, which...

In today’s show, we reflect on our series on the Korean War by focusing the philosophical dimensions that most resonated with us during this series. From the epistemological and psychological dimensions of the war involved in the PsyWar campaign and the ideological conflict on the Korean Peninsula, to reframing the war in a way that recognizes the thread of effort of women working for peace on the Korean Peninsula (such as done by Christine Ahn and her organization Women Cross DMZ), we...

Joining us to discuss her work towards peace on the Korean Peninsula - and ending the Korean War - is activist-scholar-teacher Christine Ahn, founder of Women Cross DMZ, a global movement of women mobilizing for peace on the Korean Peninsula. This show is the sixth show in a series focused on looking at the Korean War – we have used Bertha von Suttner’s 1912 essay, The Barbarization of the Sky, as a focal point for this discussion - and we have focused on how the the Sky was used in that...

This show is the fifth show in a series focused on looking at the Korean War by looking at how the Sky was used in that war. We have discussed strafing and aerial bombardment by the USAF in the North and South. But also dropped from planes were millions of pieces of paper carried in “leaflet bombs”. Airplanes were also outfitted with loudspeakers. These “messages” carried by airplanes were part of the Psychological Warfare (PsyWar) campaign during the Korean War, the topic of today’s...

In this 4th installment of our series commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Korean War, we explore the philosophical dimensions of the conflict. "Epistemology" is the branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of Knowledge. It asks, 'what are the conditions of Knowledge?' and 'how do we know when we know something?' The description of the Korean War as a "Forgotten War", and the fact that specific stories connected to the war have been deliberately "hidden" from public consciousness,...

In this third installment of our series commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Korean War, Pulitzer Prize winning author and former AP investigative journalist Charles Hanley joins us as a special guest as we focus on the aerial bombardment of North Korea during the Korean War. In today’s show, we discuss the use of US/UN airpower during the Korean War, and its psychological and material impact to the ordinary person in North Korea. Largely unknown by the average American is the fact that...

In 2000, Charles Hanley, with his team of Associated Press investigative reporters (Sang Hun Choe and Martha Mendoza), won the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting for uncovering a hidden nightmare in a war known in America as the "Forgotten War". Hanley and his colleagues revealed, with extensive documentation, how the United States' policy during the Korean War included the indiscriminate targeting of Korean civilians through strafing (attacking with low flying aircraft). Their...

This podcast begins a mini-series focused on the Korean War, known in the U.S. as "The Forgotten War." We begin the narrative (enter the forest) of this complex story through the Sky, which, as will be discussed in future episodes, played a crucial role in the Korean War. The Fifth Airforce of the then called "Far East Air Force" (currently called "Pacific Air Force") of the U.S. waged both conventional war through weapons (including chemical weapons), as well as Psychological Warfare...

As governments in a subcommittee of the United Nations’ General Assembly were beginning to debate the content for what was to become The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in 1947, the NAACP submitted a memorial to the UN, titled “An Appeal to the World: A Statement on the Denial of Human Rights to Minorities in the Case of Citizens of Negro Descent in the United States of America and an Appeal to the United Nations for Redress”. Supervised by W.E.B. Dubois, the “Appeal" traces a thread...

In his recent Press Conference with the Mayor of Atlanta, activist, rapper and teacher Michael Render (aka “Killer Mike”) urged people to “plot, plan, strategize, organize and mobilize”. Referencing the long battle towards equality assisted by organizations such as the YMCA (Young Men’s Christian Association) and the SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference), Teacher Mike urged us to place ourselves in this non-violent organizational line. In this show, we draw attention to an...

One of the watchwords of the 19th Century Peace Movement (also known as the Peace through Law Movement) was "Organize the World!". In this show, we focus on that phrase, discussing the organization that peace activists called for, which included the creation of laws, of new courts, the education both of legal professionals and the public, and the equality of men and women (among other things). Our objective in this show is to have the listener appreciate the different components of...

Prior to the U.S. entry into World War I (on April 6, 1917), ordinary citizens all over the world - many of them women - agitated to pressure states to create a court that allowed for the non-violent settlement of disputes. This court, The Permanent Court of Arbitration, was the result of the historic 1899 Hague Peace Conference that opened on May 18, 1899. The creation of this court was so monumental that May 18 was celebrated, mainly in the U.S. as "Peace Day". The purpose of Peace Day?...

This show continues our discussion of 5/8/2020, "What We Owe to Ourselves: Duties to Ourselves and What it Means to Violate Them". We began that show with a discussion of humiliation between persons ("A to B Humiliation"). We then asked whether this model can be applied to oneself. Philosophers from Plato to Kant have identified different aspects of the human psyche which can conflict with one another (Plato speaks of reason, appetite and spirit; Kant speaks of the inclinations of the...

In Part II of his Metaphysics of Morals (1797), philosopher Immanuel Kant discusses the duties that we have to ourselves. In this show, we focus on this section of Kant’s work and discuss whether the transgression of these duties should be regarded as self-humiliation or as something else.

In his "On the Basis of Morality" (1840) Arthur Schopenhauer criticizes Immanuel Kant's ethical theory as being "cold," "unsympathetic" and "without feeling". Schopenhauer claims to depart from Kant's view as found in The Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals (1785) and Kant's later essay, The Metaphysics of Morals (1797). But is Schopenhauer's critique of Kant valid? And do Schopenhauer and Kant hold radically different views of morality? We attempt to understand this criticism and to...

We continue discussing Marcus Aurelius' Meditations, focusing on the relationship between the individual, rational being and the Commonwealth or "World City". This week we will be approaching the topic from the lens of self-interest. How does Marcus Aurelius' view of a Commonwealth of rational beings connect with notions of self-interest? Further, how do Marcus Aurelius' exhortations to rid ourselves of anger and promote tolerance and patience connect with one's self-interest? These are...